Run
by Soul Sky
Summary: Don felt his eyes widen, felt the Shell Cell slip from his fingers, and sucked in a shocked breath. He knew how Mikey felt about cursing. Raph and Leo thought Mikey didn't curse because of his age or because he didn't know how, but Don knew, he knew exactly what it would take to make Mikey swear, vividly remembered the only other time he had heard Mikey curse, and he ran.


He kept his breathing as even as he could and kept running.

" _Oh Shell. Oh…SHELL. Oh shell. Take all the planets in the Universe and choke me. Oh shell."_

Mikey couldn't believe it.

"Turtle Luck strikes again." He hissed as he leapt from one building to another.

It was just supposed to be a training run. A solo training run. One hour. Tops.

Except as a Mutant Turtle, the Universe conspired against him, and a one-hour training run across the city roofs had gone _so_ , so wrong.

It hadn't even been his fault.

He hadn't drawn any attention to himself, hadn't gone looking for problems, hadn't even _meant_ for anything to happen.

He had just had the monumental bad luck to be in the wrong place and exactly the right time.

There was no way to avoid it. He had literally been mid-jump when it happened. He had been running across the rooftops and in the middle of a jump the building he had been about to land on had exploded.

The explosion had knocked him out of the air and into a nearby building knocking the air out of him. His front and sides had burns and bruises from the explosion itself along with pieces of the exploding building, and he was bleeding from his left arm, his ears were ringing and his vision was kind of blurry.

To make matters worse, Mikey hadn't landed on the ground after the crash into the building, oh no, he had landed shell-first in the middle of the Purple Dragons/ Foot Ninjas who had caused the explosion in the first place.

So not only was he suffering the aftereffects of an explosion he had been much too close too, he had had to get up and fight for his life _right after_.

It…wasn't going too well.

The burns _hurt_ , he wasn't sure how bad they were, his chest also hurt and he wondered absently if he had cracked or bruised his ribs, his arm was stinging, he still couldn't hear right and his vision was only a little better than it had been.

Fighting right afterwards had added a few bleeding cuts to his person, including a hit to the head that really hadn't helped his vision issue. He could feel a throwing-star lodged in his thigh and didn't want to pull it out.

He had left a trail of unconscious bodies behind him though, he was rather proud of that- had even beat his old personal best of 42 unconscious with a whopping 104. Still, it was looking bad since more and more Dragons and Ninjas seemed to be pouring out of the shadows.

All Mikey could see was that night so long ago that Leo had been thrown into April's window broken bruised and battered.

He _really_ didn't want to reenact it, so he was running and dialing.

"Mikey where are you?" Donatello's voice was worried but Mikey didn't have time to comfort him. He knew he was already thirty minutes late from when he had planned to get home and that was why Don was so worried.

"Don! Hey man listen, I need to you track me."

"What? Mikey why would I track you? Are you hurt?"

"Don I don't- Oh _Shell._ " Michelangelo ducked the barrage of ninja stars, darts and knifes brought up the hand not holding the Shell Phone and slammed his nun-chuck into the Foot who had lunged at him after the barrage.

"Mikey?!"

Michelangelo didn't answer, his eyes darting around to look at the very large mini-army of enemies around him. He took in the way his head throbbed, his wounds kept bleeding, the way his ribs ached and warned against any death-defying stunts, the way the throwing star was still lodged in his thigh, and the way his burns all throbbed and stung like acid and he did the only thing he thought was appropriate for what was coming.

"Oh Fuck."

Mikey didn't curse. His brothers thought it was because he was 'too young' to do so, that he didn't understand their meanings or something.

Mikey didn't curse because he thought it was boring. _Everyone_ used curse words, so Mikey used other things- things like 'Mother of God and all her crazy nephews' or 'Snassa-frazin' or 'Son of a Motherless Goat'-he didn't just curse.

Unless it was _really, really_ bad.

He had only used actual curse words twice in his life. The first was the day Leo was thrown to them half-dead and struggling to gasp a warning about the Shredder being alive.

This was the second.

He didn't pause to talk to Donnie again. He hung up, put his Shell Cell back in its place, pulled out his other nun-chuck and began spinning them both. "Alright losers…who wants to get schooled first?"

O~O~O~O~O~

Donatello nearly jumped out of his shell when his Shell Phone rang. He scrambled to answer it, knowing it was Mikey, who was _half an hour late and hadn't called beforehand_ , and he was worried and relieved.

Splinter, Leo, Raph and himself were all sitting in the living room of their lair waiting for their youngest to call or arrive.

"Mikey where are you?" His voice was sharp with worry as he asked.

"Don! Hey man listen, I need to you track me." Mikey's voice wasn't right. It was breathless and pained and worried and it set off tons of red flags in Donnie's head.

"What? Mikey why would I track you? Are you hurt?" He rushed to ask and he could see the others in the room tense up much like he had even as he began moving so he could track Mikey like he had been asked with the others on his tail.

"Don I don't- Oh _Shell._ " Don could hear the wind that had been rushing by the phone pause and realized it was Mikey running that had caused it, and then he heard the distinct sound of Mikey's nun-chucks hitting someone hard.

"Mikey?!" Donatello was tense, and upset and so worried. He heard Mikey's breathing stall for a fraction of a second before:

"Oh Fuck."

Don felt his eyes widen, felt the Shell Cell slip from his fingers, and sucked in a shocked breath.

He _knew_ how Mikey felt about cursing. Raph and Leo thought Mikey didn't curse because of his age or because he didn't know how, but Don knew, he knew exactly what it would take to make Mikey swear, vividly remembered the only other time he had heard Mikey curse- well enough to make a sailor blush as it happened, all whispered right next to him as they hovered over Leo in April's home- and he didn't stop to pick up the phone, he started _running_ for the Battle Shell instead of the fast walk he had been using, he didn't even stop to explain what had happened to his family who were all calling for him trying to figure out what had caused his reaction, he just ran.

He took a flying leap into the Battle Shell and snapped a "DRIVE" at Raph and Leo when they scrambled in after him.

Raph started the Battle Shell up without complaint only asking "Where am I goin'?"

Donnie's hands had never flown over a keyboard so fast in his life as he pulled up his tracking program and began to give Raph instructions, not even flinching when Raph gunned it and drifted out onto the street.

The next twenty minutes were tense and silent except for the directions Don snapped at Raphael.

"Stop!"

Raph hit the brakes hard enough that everyone jerked against the belts holding them in place.

"He should be right here."

The turtles piled out of the Battle Shell and looked around quickly just in case Mikey was on the ground before they began climbing the building without a word.

They had climbed the wrong building as it turned out, but they got a perfect view of Michelangelo standing on the building straight across from them, surrounded on all sides by a mix of Purple Dragons and Foot Ninja trying to take him down and quite a few more unconscious bodies.

More than one mouth dropped at the sight of so many unconscious enemies both around Mikey and further out on the buildings Mikey had obviously been jumping around on. It was amazing to see the fight Mikey had put up, impressive to see just how many he had taken down.

Then they noticed the blood, the injuries he had taken in the fight, and they were furious. (even if it did up the impressive factor for Mikey that he had managed it all while so injured)

The three brothers lunged across the gap to the aide of their youngest, protective anger fueling every one of them in some way.

O~O~O~

Mikey almost collapsed in relief when Leo was suddenly _there_ in front of him, face twisted in anger as he blocked the sword a Foot Ninja had tried to stab him with.

Then Raph and Don had caught up with the oldest and Mikey found himself in the center of a triangle of protective rage.

The twenty minutes it took his brothers to arrive had been the longest of his life. He had managed a new personal best of 223 downed enemies, but his vision had been blacking in and out for the last three minutes and he was very aware that the only thing that had kept him moving was the very real threat to his life and the thought of what his death would do to his brothers. (Not that even _that_ would have allowed him to last even another two minutes)

His brothers were there though, and his body had already been pushed past his limits. The moment he stopped moving, the moment he felt even remotely safe, it was over.

Michelangelo swayed for a second before his legs gave out under him and he collapsed.

"Mikey?" he could hear Raph's voice, sharp with worried anger as his vision faded out.

O~O~O~

Leo was furious as he jumped in front of his youngest brother and easily deflected a sword strike aimed for Mikey's throat.

This brought back some _seriously_ bad memories of that day at April's and how useless, how worthless he had felt after that fight that had almost killed him.

The fact that his littlest brother had been stuck in a fight that mirrored the one that had almost destroyed him _infuriated him_.

He snarled and lashed out sharply at the Foot Ninja that tried to kill his brother taking him down easily. He didn't know how long Mikey had been fighting, but from the look of him and the bodies around them and off into the distance where Mikey had jumped from building to building it had been much too long. (He tried not to think it had been the entire 30 minutes he was late, on top of the 20 it had taken them to arrive. He tried not to think about Mikey fighting for his life an entire hour alone, hopping they would make it to him in time. Tried not to think about how similar that was to when he was alone on the rooftops.)

He felt his brothers as they appeared next to and around Mikey seconds after he had taken the Foot Ninja down.

They were just as angry as he was about the current events.

This close up they can see the damage done to their youngest and how close to the edge he actually is, and it makes them angrier.

It only takes a few seconds after they all surround their youngest for his body to give out on him.

"Mikey?" Raph lunges forward and catches his youngest brother as he falls, and his anger surges higher as his brother doesn't answer him and he feels from the deadweight that Mikey isn't even conscious anymore, though his hands are infinitely gentle as he cradles his youngest brother, his eyes scanning over all the damage quickly, his rage surging as he takes it all in.

"Donnie." He growls at his brother, his voice conveying everything his brothers need to know.

The damage is great and dangerous, and Donnie needs to fix it _now_ or it may be too late.

Donatello hears it all, sliding back towards Raph, Leo moving to cover him and allow him to get to their youngest. Don turns to his little brother, trusting Leo to keep them safe as he looked over the damage Mikey had taken.

A soft curse escapes at the sight of it all. This…this was bad. Bad enough that Don needed the lair- where all his equipment was. That didn't mean he couldn't do anything now, he had brought his bag with him, but he couldn't deal with all of it. He needed more than he had.

"We need to get him home." Donatello's voice is sharp and angry and his brothers tense up at the tone. They know that means his injuries are worse than they thought.

Leo snarls at the Foot who try to get to his brothers behind him. His twin katana are a blur of silver and blue as he dances in front of his little ones, always _there_ when one of the Foot or the Dragons try to step closer.

O~O~O~

The Foot and the Dragons aren't stupid. They had been chasing after the youngest for over an hour, and despite all expectations, the belief that he was the weakest of the turtles, the one in orange had fought brilliantly. He'd taken down over 200 of them all the while injured and still moving (sloppily as time went on, yes, but moving all the same.)

They were _tired_ , but so was the turtle. His brothers, the other turtles, _were not_. And they were angry.

It was time to retreat.

A few hand signals later and most of the enemies flee into the night, leaving about thirty of their number behind to cover the escape and try to take the turtles down one last time before fleeing themselves.

It was so close. They had been so close.

The leader scowls. It was just their luck.

Damn turtles.

O~O~O~

Leonardo tenses when he sees the larger numbers of the group retreating. He's not sure what that means. They could be regrouping, they could be retreating, or they could be calling in more reinforcements. All three are bad news for him.

Regrouping means an organized strike on them, retreating means he can't _destroy them_ for daring to touch his brother, and reinforcements mean even _more_ Foot that aren't tired. With Mikey in such bad shape, Leo hopes it's a retreat even though the thought _burns_ him.

He's left with about thirty enemies all shifting to better surround the group and Leo tenses. He has to make a call.

They may have their backs to the roof edge, but that doesn't mean it's safe when surrounded by ninjas. In fact, it's more dangerous. The edge is nothing to a ninja and it's just a spot where one of his brothers could be tossed over to lose the fight with gravity. His eyes flicker over the group before he calls over his shoulder without moving his eyes from the enemy. "Raphael."

His red clad brother looks up and sees the issue quickly before he turns back to Don. "Donnie." He questions quietly.

Donatello looks up, his eyes burning with anger and his hands gleaming with the blood of their youngest. "Keep them off us Raph."

And Raphael grins, wide and dangerous and a little (a lot) bloodthirsty. "With pleasure." He growls as he stands and turns to join Leo in protecting their younger siblings. His eyes flash to Leo for a moment and Raph has to admire the Foot for being such raging idiots. He's never seen Leo's eyes that coldly furious in his life. "You take the 15 on the right, I'll take the 15 on the left?"

Leo's eyes flash at him for an instant and it's all Raph needs to see to know they're in agreement.

O~O~O~

Donnie's hands are steady as he begins tending to his little brother's wounds. His eyes are steady and unwavering as he takes in the damage done to his brother. His mind works like lightning as he goes, and not once does he look up at the Foot and Dragons who surround them.

Raph and Leo are there.

No one will touch them.

Don has all the time in the world.

All the time he needs, and a little brother who needs him to be focused. Donnie is carefully choosing the worst of Mikey's wounds, packing them with gauze where appropriate, wrapping them up, bracing the places that appear to be broken or sprained- he can't tell for _sure_ without his equipment.

His hands remain steady as he uses his supplies to clean up what he can, the noise of bladed weapons flying through the air around him a background noise. "Easy Mikey…." His voice is soft, and even though he knows their youngest is unconscious, he can't help but talk to his orange clad brother like he will soon sit up and laugh his injuries off. "I've got you- you're gonna be fine. I promise."

Don would make sure of it.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **A oneshot to show you all I still live.**

 **Life has been…crazy. There was a death in the family, which kind of takes it out of you, on top of work, and the holidays coming up to run me over, and just…a bunch of stuff.**

 **So I live, and I AM working on things, no matter how crazy life gets/is.**


End file.
